In last week's letter, Ross mentioned a visit from Elder & Sister Hamula. This is a picture of them with the Southern Zone--the zone Ross is in.
G'day everyone!
Hope everyone had a wonderful week! We sure did!
Elder Bly and I were able to witness a multitude of miracles this week. I think it has been the best week of my mission, as far as what we accomplished is concerned. The Lord was definitely with us as we were out and about this week.
On Monday night we decided to drop in on the Turners to invite Isaac, Sydney, and Leon to come to mutual on Tuesday night. As we were talking with everyone, I felt like we should ask if they would like to meet one of the youth leaders. They said yes, so I said we would call the Young Women's president, and see if she could come over. So we left, and called Sister Otene (that's pronounced oh-ten-aye) to see if she could come. She said she would, and 30 minutes later arrived. It was really great having her meet the kids. The Otene family is just wonderful. They would really do anything for us. Tuesday night was youth, and Isaac, Sydney, and Leon all came and had a blast. It was great to see them make fast friends with the other youth in the ward.
We saw them again on Thursday night with the sister missionaries, and one of the YSA advisers. We taught the restoration to the whole family, including Dallas' boyfriend, Ernie. I may have mentioned in past emails that Ernie might have already been baptized in the church. We found out that there was no record of his baptism. At the end of the lesson, we invited Ernie and Leon to be baptized, and they both accepted. When we started the lesson with the family, I asked if they had read the Book of Mormon together once a week as we had previously committed them to do. Not only had they done that, but they had been reading together every night before they ate dinner! I am just thrilled to see that this family is committed to embrace (or re-embrace) the gospel together! We are excited to see them again this week to help get Ernie and Leon ready to be baptized on the 14th of June.
Wednesday was another fantastic day. We had Charlton Otene come out with us for a few hours. We went to an appointment we had with Brittany and her sister. We'd made the appointment with the sister when we called a couple days before, and arrived to find out Brittany was the only one home, and had not been told we were coming. However, she was happy to see us, and invited us in. When we saw her last we just talked with her about God. Who He is, what He does for us. Talked about who Jesus is, as well. We taught her the discussion on the restoration to teach about the Book of Mormon. We told her that it would be through studying the Book of Mormon and praying that she would be able to find out if God really does exist. After talking about that she said, "I'll have to see if the Book of Mormon is online so I can read it." After a quick chuckle, I pulled one out of my bag and told her, "We actually brought this one for you." She was really grateful for it. We committed her to read and pray to know it is was true, and to find out if God exists. We asked if she knew how to pray. She said no, so we taught her, and asked if she would like to give it a try right then and there. Now, I've probably extended that invitation more than a dozen times, and every time it's been turned down right away. Brittany, however, accepted it and said her first-ever prayer right there with us. It was a really cool experience!
On Wednesday night, Elder Bly and I went and visited a less-active Tongan lady named Ofa, and her son, Jimmy. When we arrived there, we found that Ofa's nephew was there visiting. Ofa's nephew's name is Ofa as well. Actually, his name is Feofa'akiakakau, but he goes by Ofa for short. (Wouldn't you?) This was the second time we met him. He came to the Capalaba ward musical fireside at the end of last transfer with Jimmy. He's a cool guy. He isn't religious, but enjoyed talking with us each time we've met him. On Thursday morning, I woke up to text messages from him talking about how he doesn't know who he is anymore, and really feels the need for a change in is life. His mum and auntie both told him to give church a try, so he had a lot of questions for us.
On Saturday I went on trade-offs with Elder Nelson, one of our Zone Leaders. He came to Cleveland to work with me. It was a long day full of tracting. However, in the evening we had an appointment to see Ofa at his auntie's place. We talked with him for a while. Testified about God. He's never been against the idea of God, but never grew up around religion of any kind. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and gave him a copy to read. We taught him how to pray, and encouraged him to do so. He mentioned that when he was little he lived with a Mormon uncle of his, who told him he was baptized. We took his details to give to our ward clerk to see if he had a record.
Sunday night we dropped in on the clerk, and he checked to see if Ofa had a record. There wasn't one. After we left the clerk's house, Elder Bly said he thought we should go to Ofa (the auntie) and Jimmy's to see if Ofa might be there. He was. We sat down with him and talked with him a bit more about the church. He said to us that he's the type of person who goes into something 100% or not at all. He told us that he feels like he needs to give church and baptism a go. We mentioned to him we had no record of him being baptized. He said, "Alright, I'll get baptized then." We have set a date for him to be baptized on 19th of July.
I feel so blessed right now. I cannot begin to describe how in awe I feel about the miracles we were blessed with this week. I'm looking forward to working with all of these people and helping them come unto Christ.
I love you all. Have a great week!
Elder Rosier
